Denkiteki By: CottonCandy Prologue Centuries ago…. In the moonlight and fog, an old Pokemon quickly walked to the middle of the grassy field, his feet making no noise on the frosty ground. He kept his head down, as if he were afraid of anyone seeing him, and fluffed his large, white wings nervously. Finally, reaching the edge of the lake, he lifted his green, feathered countenance and stared at the moon with slanted black eyes. The silvery disk seemed to provide no answers to whatever question he had, but after a moment the old bird swore under his breath and ruffled his feathers again, puffing them out to protect against the chill. “They’re all late…” His deep, ancient voice sounded tiny in the silence, and a shiver ran up his spine at the feeling it gave him. This place, this leafy hollow, was far too aware of him. He felt watched, and even with all his years he felt scared and panicked. He wrapped his wings around his torso and stared at the metallic color of the moon in the water to distract himself. Hours passed, and the silence that he heard around him began to grow…and grow…until finally it was almost unbearable. The old bird was sweating now despite the cold and listening to his rapid, frightened heartbeat. The next sound startled him so much that he squawked loudly, but no sound could rival this: the tearing of time and space. He turned and smoothed his feathers as, at last, what he had been waiting for happened. The rift was in the middle of the clearing, only a few yards away from him, long and ragged. It shone with an opalescent, pearly sheen that lit up the fog and scattered the light in the tiny water droplets in the air. The old Pokemon watched as shadows rippled inside the tear…and a needle-sharp beak poked through roughly, as if it had been the cause of the rift. More of the owner of the beak appeared from the opening: small, mean eyes and razor-like, golden feathers that smelled of ozone. The last of the great bird emerged, and it flapped its enormous wings to take flight momentarily. It circled lazily and landed beside the old one. It peered at the rift as well, falling silent. Another sharp beak protruded from the pearly otherworld, and molten plumage followed, reeking of brimstone and sulfur. This bird did as the one before it; it took flight and circled to the old Pokemon. In the same fashion, one more beak pushed through the fabric of the tear, this one small and gray. Dazzlingly blue feathers that sparkled like sun on fresh snow came after the beak and the bird flew to land beside the others. Now a thick, bony, crystal-colored crest appeared from the fracture in space, and violet ripples of long fur, then gray-speckled short fur. A four- legged Pokemon leapt from the hole and dashed to the last bird’s side, making the fog lift and the wind howl. The procession went on; a four-legged Pokemon with long, gleaming fangs and cloudy curled fur that smelled of ozone; another similar Pokemon with great bunches of thick brown fur and a fierce, fiery expression on its serious face; hawkish black eyes and lengthy feathers of many golden hues that bathed the rest of the creatures in a sunny, inner glow; silvery plumage mixed with blue that smelled like thick ocean air; deep-set amber eyes beneath slick, sapphire-with-red-lines, rubbery skin; thick, hard-looking plated skin like angry ruby stone and massive ivory spikes and claws and teeth; a long, serpentine, emerald-and-yellow head and neck attached to an even longer, more serpentine Pokemon with piercing yellow irises; two creatures that were nearly identical, with sharp feathers and arrow-shaped faces, the same except for the difference between the blue male and the red female; glacial limbs that cracked and snapped like ice over water; the rasp of rock on rock as a giant-footed Pokemon stepped through; clanking noises like steel and iron groaned forward; large, spiked feet in both pink and silver-blue attached to one Pokemon on its hind legs and one on all its legs, respectively; three playfully floating creatures zoomed through the opening, one with a yellow, round cap, one with a blue cap, and one with a splayed pink cap; a mountainous Pokemon with gray, red, and black skin adorned with yellow trimmings and whopping ebony wings, pointed with red talons; a crescent-moon shaped head preceding an ethereal pink and blue body; and finally a creature so small compared to the others that it almost surprised the old bird. The last Pokemon was a lovely spring green with big, innocent, blue eyes, and as it fluttered through, the rift closed very quickly. The little green Pokemon sighed a tired sigh, and flitted to the ground before the old one, then opened her mouth to speak. “Please, Xatu, never ask me to transport everyone at once like that again. It’s so draining. I was afraid the tear would collapse and lose the rest of us in Limbo forever.” Xatu smiled thinly with his yellow, brittle beak and nodded. “But you do understand why I asked such an enormous task of you, dear Celebi?” “I’m afraid not, sir.” She shook her little head sadly, and then lifted herself into the air on her tiny, translucent fairy-like wings. Xatu frowned wearily and sighed as well before he raised his voice to the assembled Pokemon that filled the impossibly vast meadow. “My friends, I have seen the future with mine own eyes as I have watched the sun cross the sky, and what I have to tell you is very grave for us indeed…” The company of creatures shuffled uneasily and listened with a bated silence. “The destruction of all Pokekind is upon us. Now, before you get alarmed, I have good news. Since I have observed this in the future, it will not happen for quite some time, so we can prepare for it. What exactly threatens our existence I do not know, but I have found the solution to our problem.” He looked around and took a breath. Centuries ago, when the world was new… “The answer is this: four young humans shall be chosen to defend us—“ An uproar interrupted him, and he held still as the wave of discontent washed over the clearing. “Humans? What good will those do us?” “Yes, they’re probably what will kill us all!! Why should they be the answer?” “What could they possibly do to save us when all they ever do is enslave our kind for their own selfish wants?” Xatu waited until the accusations petered out, then lifted his wings for total attention. “I say ‘humans’ because this problem isn’t a human- caused catastrophe. It is one that comes from nature itself. Even we have no control over it, as Pokemon, the offspring of the elements themselves. But humans and Pokemon combined have a chance at defeating this unknown menace. The answer is simple. Four young humans will be given the life energies and abilities of four chosen young Pokemon.” Angry words rose again at the sacrifice of children. “I understand your malice, but what would you want? To preserve the lives of four young ones that cannot do anything to help us? Or give the energies to humans whose lives would be for naught without them and who would be able to vanquish the destruction that looms over our doomed heads? Would you really take that chance, just because of prejudice?” Silence ensued as uncomfortable shuffling arose again. “Now listen. Your concern is real, and I thank you for that. You’re all listening to your hearts. But now you must listen closer, to your brain. Think hard: four of ours kept and death, or four of ours sacrificed and life?” He glared at the ground for a moment, and then raised his head. “Assemble into your appropriate groups, please. Water and Ice types with Uxie, Fire and Ground types with Mesprit, Air, Dragon, and Electric types with Azelf, the rest of you all together. Now choose a young Pokemon from your groups, just one, then show them to me. Choose wisely, for remember that the power of the type you choose will be combined with the most powerful of the other groups to save our race, and those of the other living beings on our planet from a fate worse than death.” Centuries ago, when the world was new, an old Pokemon brought together the mages of their time and set about averting the obliteration of the earth...